Villarreal 1-0 Sevilla: Nilmar goal wins the game

December 6, 2010

The starting line-ups

Villarreal produced a decent performance to remain ‘best of the rest’ in La Liga.

Juan Carlos Garrido gave a rare start to Jose Manuel Catala at left-back ahead of Joan Capdevila. Marcos Senna started alongside Bruno Soriano in the centre of midfield, while Santi Cazorla started on the right, Cani on the left.

Sevilla, without Luis Fabiano and Jesus Navas, went for a 4-1-4-1 system with Frederic Kanoute upfront alone, with Jose Carlos and Diego Perotti playing as inverted wingers either side.

Gregorio Manzano’s gameplan was clear – he saw Villarreal’s two holding players as very important to the home side’s game, and therefore used two central midfielders, Romaric and Luca Cigarini, trying to close them down and press at every opportunity.

Villarreal uncomfortable

In fairness, this worked quite well at the start of the game. As much as any other side in European football at the moment, Villarreal’s two holding players are literally a ‘double pivot’. With the strikers moving wide, the interiores cutting in and the full-backs bombing on up the touchline, Senna and Bruno Soriano maintain their position in the centre of the pitch and allow the rest of the side to drift across the pitch and take up new roles. The rest of the side functions around them.

Senna and Bruno weren’t allowed time on the ball, however, and Villarreal didn’t play particularly well in the opening stages.

The problem, however, was that by fielding two midfielders in ‘defensive’ roles high up the pitch, Sevilla didn’t have much creativity in the centre of midfield. The man with more time than anyone else on the ball was Didier Zokora, but his passing was not particularly ambitious and he rarely had good movement ahead of him. The two wingers were designed to be the main threats, but with Villarreal’s full-backs pushing Perotti and Carlos back into deep zones, they were not in a position to create.

Pressing

Another problem for Sevilla was that they were trying to press Villarreal at goal kicks, but there is no natural press for a 4-1-4-1 against a 4-4-2. Diego Lopez was always able to play the ball to one of his centre-backs, who would then knock it out to a full-back once one of Sevilla’s wingers had come inside to close down a centre-back, and the ball was played forward. The obvious solution would be for Sevilla to push one of their central midfielders forward, but their job was to occupy Villarreal’s holders and so remained in position.

With this (half-hearted attempt to) press came a high defensive line, and though the defence were not particularly high up the pitch for the goal, a ball in behind looked the most likely way for Villarreal to take the lead. Nilmar finished typically coolly.

Second half

Second half line-ups

On 55 minutes Manzano made two changes, removing Romaric and Carlos, and bringing on Alvaro Negredo and Diego Capel, pushing Sevilla higher up the pitch and giving them more attacking potential, with two wingers on the ‘correct’ sides and two strikers. Crucially, this meant that they were able to press much more naturally and much more effectively.

And, on the balance of play, they will have felt they deserved to get back into the game. They had two goals disallowed because of very marginal offside calls – once when Villarreal’s entire team tried to push up from a free-kick – and for the final third of the game, they were by far the better side.

Villarreal were surprisingly unconvincing when they looked to counter, and Juan Carlos Garrido felt the need to reinforce his side defensively by bringing on Capdevila for Cani.

Villarreal held out, but Sevilla’s change in shape made them the better side.

Conclusion

Manzano’s plan of stopping Villarreal’s central midfielders from playing worked well, but using this shape in combination with pressing high up the pitch did not.

Still, Villarreal were not at their best throughout and were slightly fortunate to hang onto a 1-0 win. Their movement was not as good as usual in the first half, and they struggled to move up the pitch in the second.

sevilla really need to buy at least 2 central midfielders who are good passers of the ball, even when navas & fabiano were fit they were struggling to break teams down and alot of that comes down to their central midfield which offers nothing on the ball. As for villarreal i think they have a great chance of winning the europa league & finishing 3rd in la liga

3rnald0 on December 8, 2010 at 5:59 pm

cigarini is very astute on the ball

matt on December 6, 2010 at 6:32 pm

i didn’t see the game, but how did Sevilla manage to close off Cani and Cazorla? It seems like the attacking wingers of Seville would leave Villareal’s wide playmakers in too much space. How effective was Sevilla’s high line in restricting space for Villareal’s interiores? Were Villareal just unable to find the right width (as much as they focus on varying width) to expose Sevilla? It seems like an interesting game, sort of like how Mourinho’s Chelsea’s 4-1-4-1 handled Wenger’s Arsenal.

Jim on December 8, 2010 at 5:26 pm

Cani and Cazorla came inside naturally where there was space because of Sevilla’s central midfielders pushing up to restrict pace for Bruno and Senna. They are both excellent on the ball so the lack of space wasn’t a big issue, the lack of service was as ZM noted in the article.

Villareal did lack width but Rossi and Nilmar do work the channels well and looked quite dangerous on the counter attack when Sevilla were on top.

A rare victory for 4-4-2 over 4-5-1!
Really enjoyable read and I agree, Sevilla where unlucky not to get anything from the game on the balance of play.
In Rossi Villarreal have a striker who is equally adept at creating chances for others as he is slotting himself…him and Nilmar have been scoring regularly which I think is what Sevilla have lacked. I quite like Cazorla as a player, very creative. I also think Sevilla need Navas back on form as soon as possible….last season he had a real cutting edge to his play and creates so many opportunities.
Watching the game reminded me of writing about my team Everton in that they are playing well and in many cases dominating games but this play is often undermined by a lack of potency in front of the opposition’s goal.
Cheers for writing another insightful and articulately written report… this site is certainly the benchmark for tactical analysis. Keep them coming!!

Jim on December 8, 2010 at 5:32 pm

Sevilla definitely miss Navas a lot. He is a big outlet for them.

3rnald0 on December 6, 2010 at 7:10 pm

ZM, have you seen Matilla play for Villareal at all? and if so, what are your thoughts on him? I saw him once for about twenty minutes and he looks a real player, but hardly ever plays for Villareal, and cannot understand why.

Isaac on December 6, 2010 at 9:17 pm

Hey ZM – great post as always.

Villareal’s system of having the strikers drift wide and the attacking midfielders come inside is very similar to what the United States did in their 2-0 victory against Spain. Charlie Davies and Jozy Altidore would frequently move to the flanks to allow Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, two very prolific goalscorers for club an country, to come inside. Davies in particular seemed almost permanently stationed on the left flank and he always found space when he made runs behind Sergio Ramos because Ramos was responsible for providing width on Spain’s right with Fabregas coming inside from the flank in a 4-1-3-2. This actually dragged Puyol and Alonso wide but Davies and Dempsey combined around them before slotting through Altidore, who outmuscled Villareal teammate Capdevilla and barely beat Iker Casillas.

Good post. After reading so much about Villareal’s system, I am shocked it works with 4 players occupying so much space. Yes, fluidity is wonderful to have, but there is so much responsibilities on the players. I want to see what happens if Villareal has to deviate from their 2 striker formation.